macro
- 8 dictionary resultsmac⋅ro
[mak-roh] 
roʊ
adjective, noun, plural -ros.| 1. | very large in scale, scope, or capability. |
| 2. | of or pertaining to macroeconomics. |
| 3. | anything very large in scale, scope, or capability. |
| 4. | Photography. a macro lens. |
| 5. | Also called macroinstruction. Computers. an instruction that represents a sequence of instructions in abbreviated form. |
| 6. | macroeconomics. |
macro-
| a combining form meaning “large,” “long,” “great,” “excessive,” used in the formation of compound words, contrasting with micro-: macrocosm; macrofossil; macrograph; macroscopic. |
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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| mac·ro (māk'rō') adj.
[Short for macroinstruction.] |
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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macro
/mak'roh/ n. [techspeak] A name (possibly followed by a formal arg list) that is equated to a text or symbolic expression to which it is to be expanded (possibly with the substitution of actual arguments) by a macro expander. This definition can be found in any technical dictionary; what those won't tell you is how the hackish connotations of the term have changed over time.The term `macro' originated in early assemblers, which encouraged the use of macros as a structuring and information-hiding device. During the early 1970s, macro assemblers became ubiquitous, and sometimes quite as powerful and expensive as HLLs, only to fall from favor as improving compiler technology marginalized assembler programming (see languages of choice). Nowadays the term is most often used in connection with the C preprocessor, LISP, or one of several special-purpose languages built around a macro-expansion facility (such as TeX or Unix's [nt]roff suite).
Indeed, the meaning has drifted enough that the collective `macros' is now sometimes used for code in any special-purpose application control language (whether or not the language is actually translated by text expansion), and for macro-like entities such as the `keyboard macros' supported in some text editors (and PC TSR or Macintosh INIT/CDEV keyboard enhancers).
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Main Entry: mac·ro
Pronunciation: 'mak-(")rO
Function: adjective
1 : large, thick, or excessively developed <macro layer of thecerebral cortex>
2 a : of or involving large quantities : intended for use with large quantities macro procedure in analysis>
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MACRO
1. Assembly language for VAX/VMS.
2. PL/I-like language with extensions for string processing. "MACRO: A Programming Language", S.R. Greenwood, SIGPLAN Notices 14(9):80-91 (Sep 1979).
[The Jargon File]
macro
A name (possibly followed by a formal argument list) that is equated to a text or symbolic expression to which it is to be expanded (possibly with the substitution of actual arguments) by a macro expander.
The term "macro" originated in early assemblers, which encouraged the use of macros as a structuring and information-hiding device. During the early 1970s, macro assemblers became ubiquitous, and sometimes quite as powerful and expensive as HLLs, only to fall from favour as improving compiler technology marginalised assembly language programming (see languages of choice). Nowadays the term is most often used in connection with the C preprocessor, Lisp, or one of several special-purpose languages built around a macro-expansion facility (such as TeX or Unix's troff suite).
Indeed, the meaning has drifted enough that the collective "macros" is now sometimes used for code in any special-purpose application control language (whether or not the language is actually translated by text expansion), and for macro-like entities such as the "keyboard macros" supported in some text editors (and PC TSRs or Macintosh INIT/CDEV keyboard enhancers).
(1994-12-06)
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| macro macroinstruction |
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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